


What Should Have Been Ours II

by DemonzDust



Series: What Should Have Been Ours [2]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Angst, Hurt Theo Raeken, M/M, Sceo Week, Slow Burn, Soulmates, Suspense
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-20
Updated: 2019-07-20
Packaged: 2020-07-09 13:23:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,993
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19888540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DemonzDust/pseuds/DemonzDust
Summary: After being kidnapped and tortured by Mr. Douglas, Theo has learned the truth about why the Dread Doctors chose him as a child. He now knows that Scott was supposed to be his soulmate, and that the Dread Doctors intentionally corrupted him to keep them apart. Now Scott saved him from Douglas's clutches, but the True Alpha has no idea what Theo learned and Theo plans on keeping it that way.





	What Should Have Been Ours II

**Author's Note:**

> This is the sequel to **[What Should Have Been Ours](https://archiveofourown.org/works/9862829/chapters/22131167)**.
> 
> This one is for Miguel - who has consistently poked me in comments over the past two years to write this, for the others that have prodded me even though this fic was years old.
> 
> Even though I was reluctant to start another long and plotty fic while I'm still wrapping up Memoriae Fractum and The Road After, I decided to push myself to finish at least the first chapter for SceoWeek. So here we are! :-)
> 
> I’m sorry this took so long, and it I hope you guys like it.
> 
>   
> 

The light pitter-patter of raindrops on the car roof grows louder  as Lydia navigates through the dark streets of Beacon Hills.  By the time she's pulling up to the McCall home water is rushing over the glass of her windshield in waves so thick even the furious swiping of her wipers barely offers any reprieve.

Scott and Theo have been silent the entire ride, and she doesn't need to be able read chemosignals to feel the raw upset lingering between them. Whatever happened in the tunnels before she arrived must have brought everything that had transpired between them to the surface of Scott's thoughts. Hurt and anguish are etched into his features just as it had been in the first days that Theo's betrayal.

She glances into her rear-view mirror. 

Theo’s in the backseat with his head leaning against the window, staring broken and dejectedly out into the dark rushing rain.

"I don't have an umbrella." she says, turning to Scott as the car idles.

"It's okay." Scott assures her, unbuckling himself as he glances into the back seat to make sure Theo's still where he put him. "I've got him. You go home and get some rest."

"Are you sure?" she asks. "Really, I can stay if you want."

As much as she isn't interested in getting soaked, she's worried about the tension between the two of them, and she's not sure what Theo is planning to do with the information he just learned.

"No, really it's fine." Scott insists. "You've done a good job, I've got it from here."

He pauses with his hand on the door handle before turning back.

"You know, you're getting better and better at this whole banshee thing." he offers her with a weak smile.

She returns the smile, but it's equally weak. 

If only it had been enough to help Stiles from being taken.

Stiles would know what to do about this whole soulmate thing. He'd know how to break it to Scott.  _ If  _ they should break it to him at all.

She sighs as she watches Scott step out into the pouring rain.

* * *

The rain is awful. Buckets of water pour down onto Scott’s head as he makes his way over to Theo. Just in case having to haul the murderous traitor that had once been his friend into his home wouldn’t be difficult enough, now he has to do it soaked to the bone.

"Get out." he orders coldly, and watches as Theo struggles in vain to unbuckle himself. His fingers are so weak and shaky he can't seem to get enough pressure to release the lock.

Scott has to swallow the lump of sympathy building in his throat as he reluctantly reaches into the car and unlocks it for him. With a sigh, he offers Theo a hand and shoulders his weight as he stands. He's not sure why Theo hasn't healed properly by now, but he doesn't want to figure it out while he’s standing in the rain.

He kicks the car door shut with his foot and waves at Lydia, letting her know that it’s okay to pull away, before hauling Theo up the front steps. Theo slips on the second-to-last one and nearly sends both of them tumbling backwards, but Scott manages to catch hold of the railing in time.

"Come on." he growls, squeezing Theo's body tighter to him.

He hates having to touch Theo like this. He hates how every time he does it he has to fight his instinct to pull him closer. To comfort him and shield him from the rain and whatever else might come his way.

_ Stop it. _ He mentally chides himself for even entertaining the idea.  _ Don't even start that. He'll take whatever sympathy you give him and use it to strange you… _

Scott fumbles with his keys and tries not to let the fact that Theo's head is resting on his shoulder, his soft lips inches from his neck, deter him. It's only out of necessity that Theo's leaning on him right now. He wouldn’t do it if he could manage on his own.

" _ Shit _ ." he swears with frustration as he slips through key after key. He must have passed it twice in the ring by now, but Theo—so close and weak, leaning into him for support—is making him lose his mind.

When he finally finds it, he jams the key into the lock and pulls them both into the foyer.

His mom would kill him if she could see the trail of water he’s leaving behind him as he hauls Theo into the living room. But there's not much he can do to avoid it. He places Theo unceremoniously onto the sofa and crouches down in front of him to meet his eyes.

“Are you going to stay put while I get you some dry cloths? Or will you try to run off like an idiot again?”

Theo nods sullenly and Scott can tell how difficult it is for him to keep the eye contact.

He hasn’t said more than two words since he’d refused to let Scott draw his pain away. 

Questions about what Douglas had done to him are burning on Scott’s tongue but he won’t let himself ask them. He can tell that Theo doesn’t want to talk about it, and he’s worried about the pangs of sympathy that he might feel in his chest if Theo goes into much detail.

“Are you going to put me back in the ground?” Theo asks, his voice broken and bitter. “Because I'd rather you just kill me.”

Scott sighs.

He’d regretted his reaction from the previous evening almost as soon as it had happened. He’d been rattled and scared to see Theo in his living room. He had no idea what he was walking into, and if Theo was a threat to his already weakened pack. With Stiles missing, everything felt unstable and dangerous. He couldn’t handle seeing Theo in that moment.

But he would never have sent Theo, or anyone else, back there.

It had pained him to watch Theo go the first time. Screaming his name and calling for help.

_ Scott! Please! Scott help me! _

Words that had haunted him for months. The image of Theo being dragged away playing on the backs of his eyelids nearly every time he struggled to sleep.

He’d moved towards him, compelled to help him even though he  _ knew  _ Theo would just turn around and try to kill his pack again. When he realized what he was doing he’d paused, and in that moment of hesitation, any chance to intervene was swallowed up.

Scott still can’t help but feel like a part of himself had been swallowed up along with it.

“No, but I’m going to have to cuff you to the radiator.” he says. “For your own safety as well as everyone else's.”

He doesn’t tell Theo that he won’t ever send him back. He doesn’t tell him how his screams echoed in his nightmares. Because Theo would only use that against him.

But he couldn’t stop himself from putting his hand on his shoulder, making him meet his eyes again, and adding, “You’re safe here.”

He sees a wave of pain flicker through Theo’s grey irises, before the chimera quickly turns his head away.

_ It’s just performative. _ Scott tells himself as he makes his way back upstairs for blankets and handcuffs.  _ You can’t fall for this act again... _

* * *

Theo still can’t bring himself to look Scott in the eyes when he comes back downstairs with an armful of blankets, towels and chains. He keeps his gaze on the floor as he offers up his wrists. Swallows a growing lump in his throat when he feels Scott’s signature strong and gentle touch on his arms as the cuffs are fastened to him.

The chains are long enough to reach from the sofa to the radiator without much discomfort. He’ll be able to lay down easily, and he has more than enough mobility to shift around. But Theo still doubts he’ll be able to sleep.

He doesn’t know how he’ll ever sleep again. 

He can hear Douglas’s voice in every moment of silence. Uttering the undeniable truth of who he was, what he was, and everything that he could have been.

He didn’t deserve to have Scott save him tonight.

He looks down at the chains on his wrists. The ones he had done everything to earn. 

_ Can I ever fix this? _

He desperately wants to ask it, but he already knows the answer.

He can’t undo what he did to Scott anymore than he could undo what the Dread Doctors had done to him. Their future together had been destroyed years before Theo’s claws had found their way into Scott’s chest. 

He’d given Scott up the day he’d caved to the Dread Doctor’s scalpel. A day, a long time ago, when he lay flat on his back, strapped to a table, his vocal chords broken from screaming, his cheeks raw from the tears streaming down his face. The moment he’d decided he would do  _ anything _ to make it stop.

Even watch his own sister drown.

He waits until he hears Scott making his way back upstairs before he buries his face in his hands and muffles the tearful sob he’s been holding in his chest since Scott had freed him from the operating table.

* * *

Scott can’t sleep.

The claps of thunder and low roar of rain on the rooftop does nothing to mask the sounds he hears coming from downstairs. The low groans of pain, the muffled sound of tears. They’re so quiet, not even a werewolf should be able to hear them, yet Scott feels as though Theo is right beside him. 

He rolls over. Tries to pin the pillow to his ears and block out the sound. Theo had refused Scott taking his pain in the tunnels, and Scott doesn’t want to be the schmuck offering it a second time.

But as the minutes draw on and the sounds don’t cease, Scott finds himself kicking his blanket off and descending the stairs in spite of himself.

“Theo?”

Theo starts immediately at the sound of Scott’s voice. His eyes flashing to him for a brief moment. There’s something in them that’s strange and unfamiliar. An undisguised look of shock and anguish. The sight sends a sharp and electric pain shooting through Scott’s chest.

Theo quickly looks away, and Scott collects himself. Shakes his head to throw off whatever feeling he should not have experienced looking into Theo’s eyes.

“Theo, let me take some of your pain.” he says, sitting down on the coffee table in front of him. “Just so you can sleep.”

It isn’t a soft request this time, and Theo knows it.

“Do whatever you want.” Theo mutters back coldly, his eyes fixed on the window with dark rain drops clinging to it.

Scott sighs.

He won’t force Theo into this if he truly doesn’t want it.

His eyes travel over the stiff arc of Theo’s spine, the tense lines of his arms. He can feel the misery leaking off of him, even if the chimera’s pride won’t allow him to show it.

“You know getting hurt…” Scott offers, carefully. “What he did to you, it’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

“Scott,  _ please _ —” Theo’s brows crease as he screws his eyes shut in what Scott can only assume is frustration.

“Strong people get hurt.” Scott continues in spite of the resistance. “They lose. They—”

“Scott, you have  _ no idea _ what you’re talking about right now.”

At that Scott frowns.

“You think I don’t know what it’s like?” he asks. “That I’ve never been captured? Tortured?”

“I don’t give  _ a fuck _ about being tortured.” Theo interjected. “If I stopped to cry every time some asshole strapped me to a table…”

Scott bit his lip as he listened to the sadly honest objection.

Images of Theo from fourth grade swim in his mind’s eye, and Scott has to fight back the urge to imagine that boy being sliced open in the Dread Doctors’ operating theatre. It’s probably what Theo _ wants _ him to picture.

“Listen.” he says, steering away from the more dangerous subjects. “You’re safe here, okay? I’m not going to let anyone hurt you. I’m not going to let anyone take you anywhere. And I’m not going to let _ you _ hurt anyone either.”

Theo doesn’t look at him, and Scott has trouble reading the expression on his face.

“Theo, I don’t know why you’re fighting me so much on this, and I’m not going to make you let me take your pain.” he says, “But I think you need it to be able to sleep.”

* * *

Theo reluctantly lets Scott draw his forearms into his grasp, but he can’t look him in the eyes. He can’t look at all the things that could have been his.

_ I’m sorry.  _ He thinks, quickly shutting his eyes to hide the tears brimming on his lower lashes.  _ I’m sorry that I gave you up. I’m sorry for what I let them do to me. You wouldn’t have. You would never have let them twist you. You would have been strong. You wouldn’t have let them take me from you the way I let them take you from me. You wouldn’t have broken for them. _

_ I’m sorry I was so fucking weak. _

_ You deserved so much better... _

He tries not to let his lip tremble as he feels Scott’s kind and forgiving energy flowing through his veins, drawing dark ribbons of pain from his blood. Scott’s hands feel so right on him it hurt more than any torture ever could.

How the fuck had he not realized he was in love with Scott before tonight?

As he feels Scott draw the last strands of pain from his body the exhaustion starts to set in. He slumps back onto the pillows, his eyes still closed. He wants to whisper a thank you or an apology, but know he won’t be able to manage it. 

Even if he wanted to tell Scott the truth, he isn’t sure that he could. 

So instead he lets his body fall into a deep and hopeless sleep.

* * *

Scott waits until he sees Theo’s chest rise and fall with measured breaths of slumber before he quietly ascends the stairs and crawls back into his bed.

He pretends that it was a trick of the light that he saw just before stepping away. Not a silvery tear slipping from the corner of Theo’s eye and down his cheek.

With the pained sounds now absent, Scott tries to push all thoughts of Theo out of his head. 

But his dreams betray him. 

His unconscious mind is stuck on the fantasy of gathering Theo up in his arms and carrying him upstairs with him. In his dreams there are no barriers to separate them. No past to keep them apart. He can move his hands over Theo’s skin and offer him unrestricted comfort and acceptance. 

In the dream Theo melts under his touch. Leans into it. Draws Scott closer. Theo’s breath is warm as it rolls down his neck. They’re both unguarded as they melt into one another. In the embrace Scott feels no lack, no regret, no loss. In Theo’s arms he’s not The True Alpha. In Scott’s arms Theo isn’t the First Chimera. He is just Scott, and Theo is just Theo.

When Scott wakes he’s ashamed of the dream. Embarrassed by the heartbreak he feels spreading through his body when the dream fades away around him. Disappearing in the haze of the early morning sun.

It’s pathetic that he feels like crying. It’s ridiculous.

The worst part is that it isn’t even the first time it’s happened.

He’d dreamed about sleeping next to Theo ever since he’d first come back to Beacon Hills. That soft smile, those love an attention-starved eyes, the calm way he handled himself when they were in danger. That devastatingly familiar story of how they were alike — both torn from their human lives and changed in a way that was irrevocable and permanent — coupled with the intoxicating idea that Theo had moved back _ for _ him. To be with him. To be with his pack.

He’d had a girlfriend. But still he couldn’t stop thinking about Theo.

Every time Theo was by his side, even when things were falling apart around him, there was still something that had felt  _ right _ . Like, in spite of all the hardship they’d endured since being bitten, there was still something working out  _ exactly _ the way that it had been meant to.

When he found out that it was all a lie?

_ That’s _ what had broken him.

He has to choke down a lump in his throat as he pulls himself out of bed. Has to steel himself to face Theo again.

If he knows that it was all a lie, why does seeing Theo still hurt  _ so bad _ ?

He can’t spend time thinking about it. Theo is only one of a thousand problems that he needs to solve. Stiles is gone. People in Beacon Hills are disappearing left and right. The fate of everyone in the town, not just their lives, but their souls, all rests on his shoulders.

He can’t be thinking about what could have been with Theo fucking Raeken  _ again _ .

He’s already scrunching his brow and setting his jaw with determination as he descends the stairs when a strange and disturbing scent hits his senses.

It’s metallic and chemical, like molten metal and plastic, but also…

He can see Theo’s arm dangling off the side of the sofa. Stark white and motionless.

Scott’s blood runs cold. He dashes down the stairs.

Theo’s sprawled out on the sofa. His eyes are closed, his body motionless. Silver mercury leaking from the corner of his mouth and down his neck.

“ _ Theo _ ?” Scott gasps, reaching for him.

But Theo doesn’t wake.

**Author's Note:**

> I know that this wasn't a super exciting chapter but it's been so long since the first part was published I wanted to spend just a little bit pickup up where we left off, finding the emotional thread, etc. before we dive into what's to come. More exciting things are around the corner I swear!
> 
> Constructive comments and feedback are always very much welcome and appreciated!


End file.
